I had this idea kinda pop into my head and I can't sleep until I ramble about it for a little bit.
The idea kinda is to spark a chain between a bunch of au's. Like a collab thing but like- you don't really need to talk with anyone else to get it set up really. (wait, that's just an event) Maybe this would be an event, yeah.
It'd maybe be a story of Nine a bit after Sonic Prime trying to find a universe fit for him to live peacefully in. Maybe even find the Sonic that's right for him (he probably never will). So he'd bounce from Sonic AU to Sonic AU, learning a bit about it but ultimately leaving it as he views it isn't fit for him.
You could throw your headcanons in for Nine too- claim that it's the unknown energy of the universes that has changed his memory and appearance. But he knows his goal: find a universe that's just right, but it seems like it'll never come to be. It frustrates him, but he secretly doesn't mind that much because he actually likes to travel the different universes and see what's strange about it.
Maybe I could make it an actual event, even with a hashtag and such, but that's only if enough people might be interested in it (and when it isn't 3 am brain talking)
Sonic lands in Westside island in search of the chaos emeralds to defeat Dr Robotnik once more before things can get out of hand.
The island’s inhabitants are friendly enough, but are very paranoid and superstitious when it comes to the hillside just beyond the villages.
Soon enough, he’s made acquaintances with some, and they tell him tales as they feed him to caution him of the vengeful spirit that’s taken up residence with the shadowed trees just beyond the horizon.
It’s made no advances towards the villagers yet but there are stories of it bringing the conquerors of neighboring islands ablaze with its fiery wrath and fearful thunder.
They warn as he departs to take extreme care, for there is no known way to appease it should it choose to awaken again.
Off he goes, incredulous but imagining what it would be like to fight a god (is ten years old)
Until he’s clearly being followed. Thunder rumbles in clear blue skies and he notices the scorched and fallen trees, the carves and gouges on the hillsides-and he starts freaking out
Fires start randomly and his food supplies are being siphoned
Fed up, Sonic decides to take his chances with spirit hunting and follows its trail all the way back to a small hovel filled with makeshift explosives
The thunder is for protection
The fires are for survival
And the scorched, emaciated child he finds is far from how he’d envisioned a powerful spirit would appear
So he sat, sharing what’s left of his rations with the divine
Turns out, this ‘god’??? pretty easy to appease with a little extra cheese.